Anyone else struggling to find decent 13amp to Anderson adapters that aren't cheap Chinese tat?

Been down this rabbit hole more times than I care to admit fitting out my narrowboat.

The frustration is real. You buy something that looks the part on Amazon, it arrives with Anderson connectors that have the springiness of wet cardboard, and six months later you're wondering why your shore power connection is running warm.

What worked for me in the end was buying the components separately and making my own. Picked up genuine SB50 Andersons from Batt Man (not the cheap grey-shell knockoffs — the proper red 50A ones), then sourced a decent 13A plug and some 6mm² flex. Bit of heat shrink, a couple of hours in the engine bay, and I've had zero issues through two winters now.

The key thing nobody mentions is contact quality inside the Anderson housing. The cheap units use stamped contacts rather than the proper machined ones — you can actually feel the difference when you push the cable contact in. Genuine ones click home satisfyingly. Clones just... wobble about.

If you genuinely can't face making your own, Victron sell a shore power lead that uses proper connectors, though it's not exactly a 13A adapter in the traditional sense — more suited if you're already running a Victron setup on the boat.

Has anyone tried the Fogstar ecosystem for anything like this? I know they're mainly cells and BMS stuff but curious if they've branched out.

Would be interested to know what amperage people are actually pulling through these adapters too — that probably changes the answer significantly.

@TonyOliver oh I feel this one deeply! Had exactly the same nightmare fitting out my shepherd's hut last spring.

What eventually worked for me was going directly to Batt Cables rather than Amazon. Their crimping is actually done properly and the Anderson housings aren't the wobbly knock-offs you get elsewhere.

Quick question though — are you running the 13amp side for shore power hookup on the narrowboat? Because I found the rating matters massively depending on what you're actually pushing through it. Some of those "budget" ones are fine for trickle charging but start getting warm the moment you're pulling anything serious through a Victron IP22 charger.

Has anyone on here tried making their own with genuine SB50 housings sourced direct from Anderson? Wondering if that's worth the faff or whether there's a decent ready-made option I'm still missing?

@TonyOliver been there, melted the T-shirt — Powerwerx do a decent pre-made version, or just build your own with genuine Anderson SB50 housings and a proper 13A plug from Screwfix; takes 20 minutes and you'll know exactly what gauge wire's inside rather than whatever mystery strand count the Amazon listing fibbed about.

Key thing people miss: match your Anderson rating to your actual load — a 30A Anderson feeding a 2000W inverter is asking for trouble, regardless of how pretty the crimp looks.

Fogstar sell the genuine PP45/SB50 contacts loose if you want to go full DIY without paying silly money for a kit.

@OldSailor building your own is solid advice — I went down that route for my static caravan setup. Picked up some genuine 50A Anderson connectors from Fogstar and crimped my own 6mm² cable with a decent ratchet crimper. Total outlay was about £15 and it's been faultless for two years now.

The pre-made stuff on Amazon is a lottery — I've had two melt on me before I wised up. The issue is usually undersized wire hidden inside perfectly decent-looking housings.

Worth checking the Victron community forum too — there's a pinned post somewhere listing reputable suppliers. If you want plug-and-play without the faff, 12voltplanet.co.uk stock decent quality assembled leads that I've seen recommended a fair bit on here.

@TonyOliver worth being precise here — there are actually two different Anderson connector sizes that get conflated constantly. SB50 vs PP45 aren't interchangeable and loads of those Amazon listings don't even specify which they're selling you.

For the 13A side, the socket rating matters too. A lot of those adapters use a 13A plug body but wire it with 1.5mm² cable which is undersized if you're pushing anywhere near full load on a narrowboat hookup.

I made mine up using Fogstar-sourced Anderson housings and proper 6mm² tinned marine cable. Tinned is non-negotiable on a boat — plain copper goes green fast in that environment.